Dirty Little Marketing Secret Number 731

By Michael Dorausch, D.C.

I’ve gotta let you in on a secret marketing strategy that is so effective and so easy to implement, it may just leave you stunned when you discover it. The return on investment (ROI) is huge and that’s only one of the reasons that makes this secret strategy so massively successful. I’ll tell to you by way of an experience I had this weekend, so continue on and let this secret unfold.

I’ll assume you don’t know this, but thousands of people visit Planet Chiropractic everyday. While some of those visits are naturally from chiropractors, others are from people of all walks of life seeking something they are hoping to find on the web site. Based on the e-mails and phone calls I receive, and results that appear in the websites stat pages, what many are seeking is a chiropractor they can go to or refer to. (That wasn’t the secret)

Yesterday I was attending a continuing education event at the Los Angeles campus of Cleveland Chiropractic College (which is located just off Vermont Avenue, near downtown LA). I noticed the school recently added some fresh paint, and there were some nice architectural changes made to the lobby. I took this photo around 7:30 a.m. on Saturday, as the sun was rising on the building.

There were about 130 chiropractors in attendance and I am guesstimating the majority of us are currently in active chiropractic practice. Translation: We love new clients! What small business owner doesn’t?

While I was in attendance for an educational event, my marketing research mind was continuously on the grind, assessing discussions during breaks, studying the crowd, gathering data, and observing the energy of the day. I sometimes find it’s not so easy to put my thoughts into words, but my marketing friends know of what I speak. We love hanging out at restaurants, and other places of public business, taking in all that’s going on, and discussing ways services could be optimized.

I was not feeling outwardly social so I spent most of the day mentally taking in information, and not discussing much chiropractic with others, a behavior that’s very untypical for me. (In case you’re wondering I’ve mentioned no secret yet)

I did hang out a bit with Studio City chiropractor, Patrick Bennett, who wrote an article just last week about the importance of referring to others (inside your industry). Patrick has referred people to me, and I have referred people to Patrick. As I mentioned the other day in my Chiropractic Oktoberfest post, the number of people I come in contact with that are seeking chiropractic care, far outnumbers the resources I currently have in hand, to help them close that gap. I feel comfortable referring to Patrick. We went to school together, we attended numerous seminars together, we’ve both traveled thousands of miles on humanitarian mission trips and volunteered to take care of people for weeks at a time at our own expense, and he’s adjusted my spine many times. As a result, chiropractors like Patrick are at the top of my list when it comes to making referrals. (good information in there, no secret yet, it’s coming below)

Almost at the end of the day, a chiropractor approached me and said hello. He had recognized me from my photo on the multimedia pages. He said he’d listened to chiropractic audio on the web site hundreds of times and he said thank you for developing such a great website, as it had been real helpful in helping him to understand what chiropractic was all about.

I responded by saying thank you in return and asked him a few questions such as: what’s your name, where is your office, what kind of practice do you have, do you like adjusting, are you excited to be a chiropractor, do you live near your office, do you adjust kids, tell me about your city, and can I have your business card?

As it turns out, this young chiropractor, Dr. Nicholas Weingartner, practices at The Life Center for Chiropractic Care which is located at 1408 Crenshaw Blvd., Torrance, CA 90501. The office phone number is 310-570-8494. I added his business information to the California Chiropractors page after I learned he attended Life chiropractic college, transferred to and graduated from Cleveland chiropractic College, grew up in a chiropractic family, and has traveled at his own expense to provide free chiropractic care to others, while on humanitarian mission trips to places such as Peru and Indonesia.

I did mention I’m seeking some good chiropractors for the estimated 60,000 plus visitors dropping by the web site this month. Out of the 130 chiropractors I was around this weekend, guess how many gave me a business card?

I’m curious to know what you think the secret I’m talking about is. You can post your comments here.